Medical professionals often use implantable ports for accessing the vascular system. Ports are typically implanted in the chest and connected to a catheter having a tip positioned at a particular point within the body, commonly the junction of the superior vena cava and the right atrium. Ports can have one or more reservoirs in fluid communication with one or more lumens of the catheter. A needle-penetrable and self-sealing septum covers the reservoir, and the reservoir can be accessed with a needle. The needle can be used for infusing or aspirating fluid to and from the tip of the catheter via the reservoir.
The presence of blood within the reservoir commonly leads to thrombus formation as blood platelets adhere and accumulate to the walls of the reservoir. Thrombus formations can occlude the outlet lumen and lead to increased infection rates. Occlusions can affect medical device performance, impairing the ability to infuse or aspirate fluid through the device. When port performance is compromised, medical professionals are often forced to replace the port with a new one, requiring additional surgeries, and increasing costs and risk to the patient. Further, even when the reservoir is only partially occluded, fluid dynamics within the reservoir are suboptimal. There remains a need to reduce the presence of thrombus formation within a port reservoir while minimizing costs and risks to the patient.